Contents

5 Family

Family status

The majority of pupils live with both parents (68% of 13 year
olds and 65% of 15 year olds), and around a fifth live with a
single parent (20% of 13 year olds and 23% of 15 year olds). Only a
small proportion lived with a step parent (8% of 13 year olds and
9% of 15 year olds) (Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1 Family status by age (2015) Base: 13 year olds (12,630), 15 year olds (10,910)

Family status has remained largely unchanged between 2006 and
2015. The only change has been a slight increase in the proportion
of pupils living with a single parent and a decrease in the
proportion living with a step parent and one parent (Figure
5.2).

Figure 5.2 Family status among all pupils
(2006-2015) Base: all pupils (for full base sizes please see
Appendix
A)

Parental knowledge of activities

Pupils are asked how much knowledge ('a lot', 'a little' or
'nothing') their mother and father had about who their friends are,
how they spend their money, where they are after school, where they
go at night and what they do with their free time. The answers
pupils gave to these questions were used to create a composite
knowledge score which was then banded into three answer categories:
pupils who think their parents who know a lot (an above median
[6] composite score) about them, pupils who think their parents
know a reasonable amount about them (a median composite score) and
those who think they know little about them (a below median
composite score).

13 year olds were more likely than 15 year olds to think that
their mother knew a lot or a reasonable amount about their
activities: 68% of 13 year olds, compared with 57% of 15 year
olds.

Among both age groups, girls were more likely than boys to think
their mother knew a lot or a reasonable amount about their
activities (Figure 5.3).

Figure 5.3 Perceptions of maternal knowledge, by
age and gender (2015) Base: 13 year old boys (6,039), 13 year old girls (6,460),
15 year old boys (5,365), 15 year old girls (5,473)

As with maternal knowledge, 13 year olds were more likely than
15 year olds to think that their father knew a lot or a reasonable
amount about their activities. However, in contrast, boys of both
age groups were more likely than girls of the corresponding age
groups to think that their father knew a lot or a reasonable amount
about their activities (
Figure 5.4).

Among both age groups, boys perceived their mother and father to
have similar levels of knowledge of what they do and how they spend
their time. However, there was a clear difference in perceptions of
mother's and father's knowledge among girls. Girls believed that
their father knew less about them than their mother (
Figures 5.3 and 5.4).

Figure 5.4 Perceptions of paternal knowledge, by
age and gender (2015) Base: 13 year old boys (6,039), 13 year old girls (6,460),
15 year old boys (5,365), 15 year old girls (5,473)

In order to explore the difference between parental knowledge
and gender in more detail we looked at the gender breakdown for the
individual items that make up the composite scores.

Overall both boys and girls were most likely to say that their
mother knew a lot about where they are after school. For most of
the items, girls were more likely than boys to think that their
mother knew a lot but the difference between girls and boys were
small. The biggest difference between boys and girls was in
relation to how much they thought their mother knew about who their
friends were (64% off boys thought their mother knew a lot about
this, compared with 77% of girls).

As above, both boys and girls were most likely to think that
their father knew a lot about where they are after school (64% of
boys and 59% of girls). Boys were more likely to think their father
knew a lot about each of the items than girls. The greatest
difference was in the proportion that thought their father knew a
lot about what they do with their free time (59% of boys, compared
with 49% of girls).

Across both ages and genders, pupils would be more likely to
talk to their mother than father if they were worried about
something. There were no gender differences in the likelihood of
talking to their mother. However, boys would be more likely than
girls to talk to their father if they were worried about something
(
Figure 5.7).

13 year olds would be more likely than 15 year olds to talk to
their mother (81% of 13 year olds, compared with 72% of 15 year
olds) and their father (62% of 13 year olds, compared with 49% of
15 year olds) if they were worried about something.

Figure 5.7 Proportion of pupils who would talk to
their mother/father if they were worried about something, by age
and gender (2015)
Base: 13 year old boys (6,039), 13 year old girls (6,460),
15 year old boys (5,365), 15 year old girls (5,473)

Caring responsibilities

A new question on caring responsibilities was included in the
survey in 2015: 'Do you care for or look after someone in your home
because, for example, they have long-term physical/mental ill
health/disability? In other words, are you a young carer?'.

Overall, 10% of pupils reported that they were a young carer.
There were very few subgroup differences with the exception of 13
year old boys who were slightly more likely to report caring
responsibilities than the other groups (Figure 5.8).

Figure 5.8 Proportion of pupils with caring
responsibilities, by age and gender (2015) Base: 13 year old boys (6,039), 13 year old girls (6,460),
15 year old boys (5,365), 15 year old girls (5,473)